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Edmund Duke
General Edmund Duke was the Terran Confederacy officer in charge of Alpha Squadron, a military force in the fictional StarCraft universe. A 53-year-old man in 2499, Duke claimed to have been a Terran Confederacy general for fifteen years. General Duke is voiced by Chris Metzen. Personal History Early History A loyal citizen of the Terran Confederacy and member of the Old Duke family, Duke personally joined in the fighting at Chau Sara against the Zerg, but eventually left before the Zerg could conquer the entire planet. General Duke oversaw Alpha Squadron's efforts to lock down the planet of Mar Sara in the wake of the Protoss attack on Chau Sara and the appearance of the Zerg on Mar Sara. He was criticized by Mar Sara's Colonial Magistrate for avoiding action with the Zerg, failing to rescue Confederate troops besieged by the aliens, and even arresting local militias. Duke accused him of being a "fringe world yokel". As the Zerg overran the planet, Alpha Squadron prepared to leave. Before they were able to do so, however, the rebel Sons of Korhal raided the Jacobs Installation, stealing forbidden Confederate technology in the form of a data disk. After the evacuation, the Protoss burned all life on the surface of Mar Sara. Duke next joined action over Antiga Prime, a Confederate colony. He was responsible for suppressing a rebellion of the colonists there, which he did by surrounding the rebels with his troops and putting one of his officers in charge of the rebel Command Center. He was defeated by the Sons of Korhal, however, who teamed up with the rebels to do so. The planet was then beset by the Zerg. During a battle in low orbit, his battlecruiser, the Norad II, was crippled by the Zerg and crashed onto the planet. Duke survived the crash, however. His forces on the planet tried to rescue him, but the Zerg made this very difficult. They were forced to turn to the Sons of Korhal for help. Arcturus Mengsk took the opportunity to rescue Duke and get him to join his rebel movement. This signaled a huge victory for the Sons of Korhal in their war against the Confederates. Shortly afterwards, Arcturus Mengsk was able to decrypt the data disks stolen from the Jacobs Installation. They contained plans for a powerful weapon, the psi-emitter. Transfer of Loyalties Duke assisted Mengsk in conquering Tarsonis, the capital world of the Terran Confederacy. He personally led an attack against a space platform defended by the Confederate Delta and Omega squadrons in order to cause enough of a "ruckus" (in Duke's own words) to divert the Confederates' attention and enable a small force to descend to the planet itself. The status of this force is in doubt. A number of psi-emitters were installed on Tarsonis and activated to attract Zerg to the planet. As a result, a huge Zerg force attacked Tarsonis, destroying most of the Confederate infrastructure and people on the planet, effectively ending the Terran Confederacy. General Duke also participated in the battle against ex-Sons of Korhal operative Jim Raynor. In order to prevent Raynor from fleeing from Tarsonis, Duke reactivated the Ion Cannon, revealing his startling knowledge of the inner workings of the former Confederate military. Raynor was forced to destroy the cannon in order to escape. The New Dominion General Duke became Mengsk's right-hand man, and in the opinion of Infested Kerrigan, he was the real tactician in the new Terran Dominion established on Korhal, the successor to the Sons of Korhal, despite Mengsk's impressive military resume. When Kerrigan was infested, she called to Mengsk from the planet Char. Duke was sent to retrieve her, but failed and was nearly killed by the Zerg. Duke continued to remain near Char, as Mengsk wanted to use Char as a colony, bringing him into a battle with the Protoss Executor Tassadar. He lost this battle as well. The Iron Fist Eventually the Terran Dominion gave up on Char and Duke left to pursue other duties, such as building up a powerful defense network over Korhal IV, Arcturus Mengsk's throne world. The defenses included a large number of battlecruisers in orbit and large numbers of nuclear missile silos. However, the United Earth Directorate sent an expeditionary force to the Koprulu Sector, intent on defeating the Zerg, Protoss and Terran Dominion. Duke and Mengsk were forced to flee. Mengsk struck an alliance with his rescuers, Jim Raynor and Infested Kerrigan, in order to build up a force strong enough to take back Korhal. General Duke took part in the battle to retake Korhal from the United Earth Directorate and was shortly afterwards assassinated by Kerrigan's Zerg. Game Unit General Duke appears in the game piloting the Norad II, a battlecruiser with advanced weapons. He also appears in the StarCraft Prequel and StarCraft Secret Missions operating a Siege Tank. He later pilots the Norad III. Trivia *General Duke's character seems to be paralleled with real life western and war movie star John Wayne, who was also nicknamed "the Duke". Both have similar mannerisms, speech and hard-boiled personalities, which Wayne tended to display in most of his movies. As well, Edmund's character design bears some resemblance to John Wayne. *Duke could also have been based off American General George S. Patton. Both men were known for their professionalism and tough-as-nails approach to running their commands (Patton's 3rd Army and Duke's Alpha Squadron). As well, Patton was also known to be bigotted, racist and possessed no sense-of-humor, traits that Duke also possesses. References * StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment * Battle.net StarCraft Compendium * Underwood, Peter, Bill Roper, Chris Metzen and Jeffrey Vaughn. StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment, 1998. * Neilson, Micky. StarCraft: Uprising. New York and Toronto, Ontario: Pocket Books, 2000. ISBN 0-7434-1898-0 (eBook only) Duke, General Edmund Duke, General Edmund